The Left parties have called for a 12-hour bandh in West Bengal on Monday, even as state chief minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to hit the street in protest against the Centre's demonetisation on the same day.

Intitally, the call for bandh did not feature in the Laft parties’ week-long agitation programme. (Reuters)

The Left parties have called for a 12-hour bandh in West Bengal on Monday, even as state chief minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to hit the street in protest against the Centre’s demonetisation on the same day. The call had come after two left ruled states, Tripura and Kerala gave a bandh call on the issue. The calls by both parties will add to public inconvenience by shutting down banks for a third day after the weekend,

The West Bengal chief minister even while being in the same page of the political divide has opposed the move saying that the call for the bandh didn’t come up in the meeting of Opposition parties in Delhi, a TOI report has said.

Initially, the call for bandh did not feature in the Left parties’ week-long agitation programme, which was announced by Biman Bose on Thursday. Some CPM leaders in the state were opposed the move without gauging the public sentiment. However, they got out of the dilemma since both BJP and TMC are grabbing eyeballs with Left parties virtually left out.

Several Opposition parties showing disagreement over the demonetisation drive imposed by the centre, have called for a nationwide strike (Bharat Bandh) on November 28. During the Rajya Sabha session yesterday, the Opposition attacked the NDA Government over demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes calling it to be an impractical move.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his speech at the Rajya Sabha had also criticised Centre’s decision to scrap hhigh-valuecurrencies calling it to be a monumental management failure. He also predicted the move to lead to a downfall of 2 per cent in country’s GDP.